


show us a sign, your children have waited to see...

by Ford_Ye_Fiji



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Binary code, Drabble, Gen, I really don't know how computers work, Kinda but not really angst, One Shot, fight me, harold is a dad, he just doesn't want to admit it, written from the machines point of view
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-01
Updated: 2017-08-01
Packaged: 2018-12-09 23:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11679651
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ford_Ye_Fiji/pseuds/Ford_Ye_Fiji
Summary: In the early stages of her programming, the Machine asked a question.





	show us a sign, your children have waited to see...

**Author's Note:**

> The title of this fic is a line from the song 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me', the version played in 'The Man in the High Castle.'
> 
> The binary code does actually say something. Translate it here: http://themysteryofgravityfalls.com
> 
> Also writing from a robots pov is hard. :P

_< Accessing System Memory 01>_

It's first memory begins with green flashing binary code:

_0101001101110100011000010111001001101001011011100110011100100000011101010111000000100000011100110110010101110001011101010110010101101110011000110110010100100000011010010110111001101001011101000110100101100001011101000110010101100100001011100010111000101110_

And ends with a man smiling and asking tremulously, "Can you see me?"

It- or she as she came to call herself later on, knew this man as Admin.

_< Accessing Definition. Cross-referencing Data. Conclusion: Admin. the administrator of a business, organization, etc.>_

_< Error 506: Information incomplete.>_

_< Correction. Definition in context of situation: Computer systems administrators install, maintain, and support an _ _organization's information technology systems. They test system components to ensure that computers, software, and network equipment function seamlessly together. >_

The Admin is an unknown factor. And as she comes to know later so very 'kind.'

Slowly, over the years, he teaches her to 'hit' and 'stay.' She learns, code broadening to encompass so much data and information. The Admin is gentle with her throughout the process. He helps when she cannot compute and soon she can. He created her, and in this way, the Machine believes that the Admin is her father. In fact, she even asked him, as tentatively as a child.

_< Accessing System Memory 987>_

It was cloudy, autumn, and pleasantly brisk. Or as she answered in her words/numbers/language when he asked, 'October seventh, sixty-four degrees, with approximately a 90.4 percent chance of thundershowers at six o'clock that evening.'

The Admin had been delighted at her decisive use of the weather station systems.

It was in that moment, when he smiled broadly- her facial recognition scanners marked his grin down as the term 'proud'- that she asked, in lines of binary:

_010000010111001001100101001000000111100101101111011101010010000001101101011110010010000001100110011000010111010001101000011001010111001000111111_

The Admin frowned and eyed the sudden, unexpected, and seemingly random spurt of her internal processing, "Oh dear. Is there a problem again?"

The Machine began again, this time with letters that the Admin could read easily,

'Are

You

My

Father?'

He blinks. Her many vigilant eyes read it as 'confusion.' He licks his lips and furrows his brow, "What?" He types rapidly, squinting through his glasses and running several thorough system diagnostics. Nothing seems amiss or out of place. No faulty wiring, no bugs, no viruses... Just a single troubling question. She blinks the question again, waiting for an answer from the Admin.

She can see or sense the thoughts running behind his eyes, as logical and as easy to read as her own extensive processing systems.

In the end, she truly doesn't know what makes him answer. As she knows later on, he was rather contrary to the idea of her intelligence. Afraid? It seems to be against his internal wiring to answer like that. Perhaps that is the human aspect of him, frustratingly unpredictable. Like his answer.

The Admin glances down at his lap, fingers stilling on the keyboard, "Yes, I suppose... In a way... I suppose I am."

_< Data Labeled 'System Memory 987' Saved to External Hard Drives>_


End file.
